For CommCare apps on android phones, projecting the phone's screen using a computer can be a useful aid in training. Here are the steps on how to project the screen on Windows and Mac. Linux devices might work with the same process, but it has not been tested for those platforms.

Some trainings can be held using the Bluestacks Emulator as described on Demo CommCare for Android on your Computer, but the emulator has poor support for languages other than English. It also forces the app to be in Landscape mode. While setting up android screen projection is a longer process, it yields much better results as users see exactly the same screen as their own phones would show.

Windows

A couple of different options are listed, since individual devices or networks may not work with certain options.

MyMobiler

Vysor has stopped working on most machines because of a WebGL issue in Chrome. MyMobiler is an alternative that does the job pretty well.

Wondershare MirrorGo

You only need to download it on your PC, no installation needed for the Android device. Installation is pretty straightforward but if you face any issue, check out this video for step by step guide.

Works offline and easy to use. The app detects the Android device pretty soon (compared to other similar tools) after connecting.

It is a freeware that offers some of the useful Vysor Pro features in the package. Some of these features like full screen, screen recording etc. are quite helpful during demos.

NOTE: Wondershare has a time limit of 30 mins per day for mirroring on the free account. I found a lifetime account for Wondershare online. You may use the following details to log in: login email: giveawayoftheday@wondershare.cn pass: DB644305174FB5300AE75F609D8D984E

Vysor lets the user project the screen and also control the phone from the PC.

Note: Vysor is not compatible with some devices, such as certain Samsung tablets/phones

Known to work with Vysor: Samsung Tab 4 8" tablets

VYSOR DEBUGGING TIPS - If you are having trouble getting your device to connect with Vysor, before giving up, try these things:

If you are on an Android 6 device or higher, you will need to switch the connection mode between your device and the computer. You can do this by swiping down from the top of your screen when the device is unlocked and connected to the computer, and then clicking on the notification bar that says "USB for charging", and selecting "File transfers" instead of "Charging".

Macintosh - BBQScreen

Setup Mac: Download the BBQScreen desktop application from the BBQScreen website: https://screen.bbqdroid.org/ Unless your phone is rooted, once it is connected, you will need to "Start USB Service" and "Connect via USB" for this to work, as well as have debugging enabled on your phone.

Older methods

NOTE: This requires downloaded a lot, 100 MB+. Do this on a good internet connection.

Steps:

Download SDK Tools from Android developers website. Link: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html#download At the bottom of the page, under SDK tools only, download the installer for Windows.(File size: Around 135 MB, do not download the large Android Studio files) (SDK Tools are needed to use the ADB toolthat lets you communicate with an emulator or Android device.)

Install SDK Tools.

The installer will detect if your system has Java kit installed or not. If not, you might be prompted to install it

Click on Next, check path and install.

On last screen, check Start SDK Manager. You need to right click and Run as Administrator.

In Android SDK Manager,

Check these three packages (all should be checked by default on a fresh install, uncheck everything else): Tools\Android SDK Platform Tools, Extras\Android Support Library and Extras\Google USB Driver.

If you get an error that it couldn't write to the directory, its because you need to close and re-open SDK Manager as Run as Administrator.

Accept license and install. The installation should take only a few minutes on a decent internet connection.

To enabled developer options if its not in settings, go to about, go to the build, and tap the build number 7 times.

Connect your device to the computer using a USB cable.

Check if the device driver is installed.

Open the Device Manager (click Start, type Device Manager, and press Enter), locate your device, right-click it and select Properties. You may see a yellow exclamation mark next to the device if its driver isn’t installed properly.

The device manufacturer may provide a downloadable driver package for your device. Or you can use the Google USB driver that we installed in Step 3 (Nexus devices should use this option).

For some devices, the Google USB driver does not work and you might have to search online for the right driver. For Samsung devices, installation of Samsung Kies automatically installs the correct drivers for your device E.g. for the Samsung Duos S GT-S7562, you can download Samsung Kies at http://www.samsung.com/ae/support/model/GT-S7562UWAXSG-downloads.

After successfully installing the driver, the Device Manager should now indicate the device driver is installed. If not, you can try re-starting everything.

Tools for projecting the phone screen (use any one)

1. Droid@Screen software

Droid@Screen is a tool that will show the screen of your phone, once all previous steps have been completed (i.e. drivers installed, usb debugging enabled, etc).

Open the downloaded file and set ADB path. On the test sytem, the path looked like this: AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe. You can search for platform-tools folder using the file explorer (accessed when you hit the "..." button) and use that path e.g. C:\Users\Stella\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe

Whenever you want to project the device, start Droid@Screen (using the same downloaded file) and plug in your device. Droid@Screen will automatically start showing the screen.

Your computer screen can then be projected on a bigger screen using a projector.

2. AndroidScreenCast software

Warning: AndroidScreenCast needs internet connectivity to start because it downloads the latest application from Google code base every time it starts. If you don't have internet connectivity, you will get an error saying 'Unable to Launch Application'. If you want an application that works in offline setting, try the 'Android-Screen-Monitor-(ASM)' application mentioned further below.

If Droid@Screen doesn't work, which can happen in some cases, another tool called AndroidScreenCast can be used. Both tools do the same job.

Connect your phone to computer using usb cable (also double check that USB debugging is enabled on the phone, as mentioned in previous steps).

You need to first run the 'adb devices' (needs to be done every time you connect your phone via usb).

Open command prompt

Navigate to the folder containing adb.exe and type 'adb devices' then enter. Typing the full path to adb file also works, you don't need to explicitly navigate to adb folder in that case. eg "C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe" devices

The command lists all the devices attached to your computer. Make sure your phone is listed in the results. It should show some id of your phone as status as 'device'. Below is a sample screen shot.

Start AndroidScreenCast by double clicking on the 'androidscreencast.jnlp' file. Ignore any security warnings given by Java. You should see the screen of your phone!

You can then connect your laptop to a projector for doing a demo or training or whatever.

4 Comments

Mac users can use BBQScreen. Download the app for Mac and the app for Android. This app enables you to export the display of the tablet in a window on your Mac. This can be done wirelessly (I've not tested) or with a USB cable (tested). It's not super fast but it works.

Anonymous

Great! Have been using DroidAtScreen for a while. I find it a bit unstable - sometimes it won't find the device driver and will not project the screen. But I think that instability is more a problem of my Windows (some days it can';t even find the device driver for a mouse).

Have been using it for onscreen demos, as well as taking screenshots.

Tip - have also used it in combination with SnagIt to create videos with narrated voice (Camtasia is better but also more expensive). Snagit allows you to select a window and record everything that goes on in that window. + voice. So you hit start record, select the DroidAtScreen window, and just start talking and demoing. Save as wmv. Works like a charm!

Droid@Screen used to work on my computer after having followed these instructions but no longer. Unclear to me what the problem is, but I did try re-installing the SDK tools and updating the driver for my phone. All of which to say - may need to update this page to help prevent such errors. Currently, I can't even start Droid@Screen.